Who is the hero of Paradise Lost by John Milton?

Scholars and readers have debated who the hero of Paradise Lost is for centuries. Satan is a common candidate. After all, his rebellion against God is the inciting incident and the poem follows him as he struggles to lead his fellow fallen angels and then tempt mankind. The Romantic writer William Blake even went as far as to claim that John Milton was "of the devil's party" without knowing it since Satan is a much more interesting character to read about than the more distant God the Father. However, Satan is presented as evil and he becomes less impressive as the story proceeds (doubting himself and becoming a snake to seduce Eve). Some have argued the Son is the hero of the story since it is he who carries out the eventual redemption of humanity. However, he is barely present as a character in Paradise Lost. The Son might be heroic, but his protagonist status is questionable.

This has lead others to view Adam and Eve as the true heroes of the story. Compared to God, the Son, and Satan, they are far less powerful, but they do have agency as characters. They make bad decisions and eventually mature as a result, much like tragic heroes do. Eve in particular goes from being naive and vain to being humble and compassionate. Adam and Eve choose to be better people and spouses even as they are expelled from paradise, and the final image of the two holding hands while leaving Eden suggests they retain their faith in God's mercy even in their post-Eden lives.

One might argue this faith is what makes Adam and Eve more heroic than Satan. Milton was writing from a Christian perspective and Paradise Lost was in part an answer to the pagan epics of antiquity. In works like The Iliad and The Odyssey, heroism is marked by cleverness and bravery amidst physical threats-- both traits which define Satan in Paradise Lost. Adam and Eve's heroism takes the form of Christian values: faith, forgiveness, and humility. In this way, Milton is offering readers Christian heroes as a response to the heroes of the pagan world.

In *Paradise Lost*, if Satan is the protagonist, who is the antagonist?

In Paradise Lost, if Satan is the protagonist, then the antagonist in the poem is God. Why is this so? It is because God stands in the way of Satan’s devious plans. God is the righteous being who expelled Satan from Heaven when Satan (and the third of the angels he influenced to revolt and who became demons) went against God and his laws.

Now Satan wants to reclaim his former position. Not only that, his intention originally was to ascend to the throne of God and above God’s throne. Essentially, he wants to be ‘God’ and be above all. He was jealous of God and is still jealous of God. Satan also wants to prevent human beings from having a relationship with God. Therefore, in the poem by John Milton, Satan is fighting God and also His Son, Jesus Christ.

An antagonist stands in the way of a protagonist’s plans. This is what God is doing; he is standing in the way of what Satan wants to do. In the Bible, it is evident from reading the Book of Revelation that Satan will ultimately lose. No matter what Satan does as a protagonist, he cannot win, because he is less than God.

His powers are not as great as God’s as he is a being created by God. He was given free moral agency to decide between right and wrong, and gain the rewards or suffer the consequences depending on his choices. He, and his follower-demons are not robots with no free will. They were given the freedom to choose the right way or the wrong way and they chose the latter. They are fighting God and his Son and their way of thinking is contrary to God (their antagonist).

The Book of Revelation talks of this protagonist’s defeat as it states that, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10)

Who is the antagonist in Paradise Lost?

If there were a single work of literature in which one might think there would be no argument about the antagonist, it is Paradise Lost. The antagonist in the poem is, after all, the common enemy of man in Christian theology. However, some critics and writers have disputed the status of protagonist and antagonist in the poem. William Blake, most famously, opined that Milton, being a true poet, was "of the Devil's party without knowing it."

Blake and those who agree with him would make Satan the protagonist and, indeed, the hero of Paradise Lost, which means God is the antagonist, since he is the one who puts obstacles in the way of Satan. This seems quite a blasphemous premise for the Puritanical Milton. The more conventional view is that Adam (or, in some accounts, the Son) is the protagonist and hero, and Satan is the antagonist, who is successful in the short term, as Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden.

The latter view, that Satan is the antagonist, is clearly correct according to Milton's theology. Although he might not have appreciated the compliment, those who disagree are really paying tribute to the poet's skill. Satan has to be an attractive and compelling figure if there is to be any virtue in resisting him, and Milton has made his Satan an extremely effective antagonist.

Who is the hero of Milton's Paradise Lost?

Since Paradise Lost is an epic poem that retells the Bible account of creation and beyond, the hero is Jesus, the son of God. Everything is fine in heaven until Satan, prideful, challenges God and is thrown out of heaven. From that point on, Satan and his demons make several plans to regain entry into heaven, but fail. So, they turn their attention to the world, knowing that created man is weak and will be much easier to conquer than God and his angels. Satan's spirit enters the sleeping serpent, and the serpent tempts Eve to eat fruit from the forbidden tree. He tells Eve that God has not told her and Adam the entire truth, and surely they will not die if they eat this fruit. They are tempted, they eat, and then sin enters into Paradise. Adam and Eve are first lustful then shameful. They hide from God, but eventually, they are expelled from the Garden of Eden. Luckily, the Son has offered his own life to redeem fallen mankind and offers to die for the sins of the world. Thus, God gives grace to mankind for their sins, even though they don't deserve it, and they have eternal life through his Son, who has sacrificed his life for the sins of mankind. So Jesus is the hero.

I think mankind is supposed to be the hero.  I know Adam and Eve don't exactly represent the typical epic heroes, nor do they possess all the qualities of epic heroes - but in the end, they are victorious over Satan because of redemption and hope.  Not to mention, the enduring message of love and the human connection to one another...

If Milton intended for this to be a discussion of creation only (with no thought then to the ongoing future - and essentially the story not actually ending) then he's done himself and his audience a disservice.  Of course he meant for this adventure story to end with the reader's existence.  And according to this story - the reader still has hope because of redemption.

I don't really think that there is a hero to speak of in Paradise Lost. Contrary to all the gallons of ink that have been spilled over the years in support of Satan's right to this dubious honor, I would argue that the Prince of Darkness is most certainly not a hero, not least because he notably degenerates over the course of the poem. Whatever sympathy we may initially have for this outcast from Heaven dissipates as soon as Satan sets out to get his own back on God by deliberately corrupting his most spectacular creation: man.

Besides, whatever we may think about the justness of Satan's cause, there's nothing in the least bit heroic about the self-serving, self-pitying rhetoric that Satan uses to justify his heinous acts. In his speech to the assembled thong of fallen angels in Pandemonium he sounds like a slimy, underhand politician in the way that he shamefully distorts the truth, telling his acolytes that Heaven is still not yet lost. (It is, as Satan knows full well).

If Adam and Eve are to be regarded as heroes, then it's only in the very convoluted sense that their defiance of the Almighty has had the fortunate consequence of allowing God to show his mercy and to redeem humankind's sinfulness by sending his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. In other words, had Adam and Eve not sinned, then there would've been no need for Christ. In that sense, Adam and Eve's transgressions can be regarded as having positive long-term consequences even if there was nothing intrinsically heroic about them.

This is a subject of much scholarly debate.  There are two possibilities:  one is Adam (or even Eve, though she is rarely mentioned in that context).  The other is Satan.

The argument for Satan’s being the hero is that he is by far the most interesting character.  This argument arises from Satan’s subtle use of Rhetoric to argue against Eve’s objections, and though Eve is not “dumb,” she is persuaded by Satan to do what she has been cautioned, specifically not to do.    He is one of the classic examples of Aristotle’s point that Rhetoric is finding “the best available means of persuasion.”

By contrast, Adam is rather a weak character who is defined by uxoriousness—the excessive love of one’s spouse, and so he is willing to turn away from God in order to be faithful to his love of Eve.

One of the best online sources for research is Voice of the Shuttle.  It is an excellent way to discover who the primary critics of a poet are, and a starting place for various kinds of research.   See the link below.

Who is the hero in Milton's Paradise Lost?

This is a fascinating question to consider, because in many ways there is no one character who stands out clearly as a hero in this text. Rather, Milton seems to present Satan as a kind of anti-hero, who is the protagonist but who definitely does not display heroic qualities. This is something that critics have grappled with since Milton wrote this epic classic, because Milton ostensibly wrote an epic about God to justify God's ways to man, yet in that epic he presents Satan in a very sympathetic light. This is partly because he resembles humans so much in his inconsistency and faults. Satan in many ways acts as a character who embodies the various failings of humans, and it is his frequent inconsistencies that cause the audience to recognise their own errors. It is much easier to relate to this all-to-human character than it is to relate to God or Jesus, who are, by their very definition, without sin. Note how Satan displays his error in the following speech he makes to Eve when he tries to tempt her:

Look on me!
Me who have touched and tasted yet both live
And life more perfect have attained than fate
Meant me, by vent'ring higher than my Lot.

Of course, it is impossible to live a "more perfect" life than a life that is already perfect. Such inconsistencies reveal the illogical nature of Satan's argument whilst also indicating the massive delusion pride causes on his way of viewing the world. Such failings cause him to be an immensely sympathetic character, whilst at the same time ensuring that the audience never loses focus on his evil nature and reprehensible actions. This epic does not therefore contain a hero, but an anti-hero in the form of Satan.